Exercise support thread

[Robo]

Hey guys I was thinking since we have a support thread for quitting smoking it may be a good idea to have a thread where people can share stories about weight loss or maybe give support to members that are having a tough time sticking with their exercise or healthy living routine.
I am 33 years old with 3 young kids I'm 5'9 and before I decide to change up my diet and actually focus on my health about 5 months ago I was 190 pounds. I was never really feeling great i was addicted to sugar pop, chocolate bars, anything I would just eat I never felt full until I was full of sugar.
I was tired all the time, I decided that I needed to change something so I started with cutting out so much sugar which was hard as f but the pounds seemed to melt off within a couple months I was down in the high 170s. I started swimming laps every second day for a couple months and got down to about 164 no matter what I did I couldn't get below that and with having 3 kids at home it was getting harder to sneak out every second day to swim. so we bought the bowflex max trainer which has been amazing with the 14 minute workouts almost daily I am now down to 159 pounds I feel great but honestly it is still a daily struggle to not pump my face full of candy and it hasnt been an easy 5 months but down 31 pounds I feel great
Sorry for the long post hopefully other people can share some stories and help people who maybe aren't seeing the results they want or are feeling discouraged about weight loss especially at this time of year with the new year resolutions coming up, anyways share away!

[Buff]

Since getting a Labrador retriever puppy I've been waking double the amount of steps each day. I had a Fitbit but never checked it pre-puppy. Now I have the motivation to get walking again and I'm exceed the daily recommended 10,000 steps. I'm losing fat and trimming down.

I find I don't have the time to do DDPYoga anymore and I'm trying to figure out how to fit that back into my life again. My other struggle is healthy eating. I'm a salty snack kind of guy. I love me some chips. Any chip will do. I'm toning and trimming but I'd also drop weight quicker if I'd quit the chips.

The day after my weekly hockey game is when I'm at my lightest weight. Monday is when I'm at my heaviest. I'm not fluctuating lots though, I'm mostly maintaining a small range.

Having a dog that needs big walks is helping me to be accountable in staying active and that's a good start. It's also been a great time to bond with my wife. We get a break from the kids and have good communication because we have that 1 hour of mostly uninterrupted time when we walk the dog. She's also losing weight and toning from all the walking (she takes him for a long walk in the morning on her own) and she's looking pretty darn good now too! Benefits all around!

[Wormius]

My only comment, sort of disposing of all the candy in the house is start tracking your intake with Myfitnesspal or Fatsecret or something. I think just being conscious of the calories in splurging on chocolate or juice can sometimes give you a bit of pause.



I was kind of at your spot, I was about 185 lb, and I looked at some photos of myself when I had a more active lifestyle before kids, etc, and I was like - what the hell happened? Then I just started tracking everything, except exercise at the time. On the app, I just said, I am basically sedentary and ate as much needed to support a sedentary style. I think that was 1270 calories per day at that time was recommeded, but now its higher. Probably about 3 months in, I was down to 140 lb and felt more comfortable with where I was at. Then my car broke down, and that meant more walking and biking to places so that helped. Then spring came along and I thought it would be good to get back into running, so I did that. Then the only issue was finding that balance between how much food to now eat to not hit a wall when exercising and not then not going overboard in eating when you're sidelined with an injury or something.


You could probably find some activities to do with the kids that would get you all active. Try to find something everybody likes. Xcountry is good, or even instead of doing all of your grocery shopping once a week, do a couple of smaller trips where you walk to one that's further away. We have a couple of Co-ops that are about a 5km round trip from our place, so it doesn't eat up a lot of your time, but its a decent outing, and you're probably carrying some extra weight with you on the way back.

[psyang]

I've been swimming a couple times a week. There is a poster at the pool that says something like "Boy, I really regret doing that workout, said no one ever".

This morning my wife and I went for a swim. We usually swim Tues/Thurs but since we had to drop our daughter off early at school for band, we decided to swim today. When we got to the pool, I said "We don't have to swim - we're going to go tomorrow anyways." We paused for about 10 seconds, then we remembered the poster, and decided since we were at the pool, we may as well swim. And of course, we felt awesome afterwards.

Our brains are wired for short-term gain. Even looking 30 minutes in the future can be too difficult at times. Sometimes it takes effort to make an intentional decision to go against inertia. Don't beat yourself up when you don't, but reward yourself when you do.

[Gundo]

Firstly congrats to everyone who has already posted their successes, its not easy and takes commitment to creat change.

Personally I’m a 2 time testicular cancer survivor and never used that as motivation to get health but quote the opposite. I been through lots I deserve “insert random night out drinking and eating here” was my mantra for the past 9 years. Well after the Flames last home game against Vegas last season I got on them scale hungover the next morning and looked over my gut and seen 288lbs. About a week later I seen my oncologist who has always been on me about my weight and gave me a tounge lashing like he was my father that literally ended with “if you don’t do something and change your lifestyle you will be lucky not to relapse and live to see your children get married”. That kind of got my attention.

My wife decided she was going to try a Crossfit & weight loss challenge and I figured I’d come along for the ride. I had not been in a gym since I played high school football (I’m 36) and turns out Crossfit was good for me I show up and someone tells me what to do and how to do it and its over in an hour. I became hooked. I went to Crossfit 3 days a week and just made simple eating changes that were common sense like not drinking 2 Red Bulls and 2 Starbucks 900 calories mocha-crappy-frappe-whatever’s 5-6 days a week or having a large bag of chips and slurped on a nightly basis combined with portion control and watching carb instake and between March and June I was able to get from 288lbs and a 44” waist down to 245lbs and a 38” waist.

Then I kicked it up a notch after Stampede (I’m in sales and Stampede involves lots of social commitments and even more beer) and hired a Lifestyle Coach from Team Ignite Fitness who set me up with meal plans counting Marcos and workout plans for 8 weeks. I started meal prepping and going to the gym 5 days a week for 1-1.5 hours setting aside time every night to get healthy. Well that 8 weeks went great and I signed up for another 8 weeks and started going to the gym 6 days a week. I usually go early in the am or late in the pm so my family never really misses me and I don’t miss time with them.

Well I just ended essentially 16 weeks of coaching 2 weeks ago and weighed in at 226lbs and with 18lbs of lean muscle gain and a 35” waist and am seriously thinking of doing a body building show next year.

It hasn’t been easy and I have fallen off the wagon multiple times with eating healthy but as my fitness coach put it “every race car needs a pit stop as long as they keep racing”.

I have another check up with my doctor in March and I cant wait to get on that scale and see what he says but more importantly I cant wait to be around to watch my kids get older and try to keep up with me for once!

[Robo]

Originally Posted by Wormius

My only comment, sort of disposing of all the candy in the house is start tracking your intake with Myfitnesspal or Fatsecret or something. I think just being conscious of the calories in splurging on chocolate or juice can sometimes give you a bit of pause.



I was kind of at your spot, I was about 185 lb, and I looked at some photos of myself when I had a more active lifestyle before kids, etc, and I was like - what the hell happened? Then I just started tracking everything, except exercise at the time. On the app, I just said, I am basically sedentary and ate as much needed to support a sedentary style. I think that was 1270 calories per day at that time was recommeded, but now its higher. Probably about 3 months in, I was down to 140 lb and felt more comfortable with where I was at. Then my car broke down, and that meant more walking and biking to places so that helped. Then spring came along and I thought it would be good to get back into running, so I did that. Then the only issue was finding that balance between how much food to now eat to not hit a wall when exercising and not then not going overboard in eating when you're sidelined with an injury or something.


You could probably find some activities to do with the kids that would get you all active. Try to find something everybody likes. Xcountry is good, or even instead of doing all of your grocery shopping once a week, do a couple of smaller trips where you walk to one that's further away. We have a couple of Co-ops that are about a 5km round trip from our place, so it doesn't eat up a lot of your time, but its a decent outing, and you're probably carrying some extra weight with you on the way back.

Good suggestions I am looking forward to when the kids are able to do stuff with me besides getting carried my 6 year old is at a good age where we do a lot of stuff together actually the reason I started swimming is because she was finally able to do swimming lessons without me being in the pool so i would use that time to do laps the other 2 are a bit young ages 2 and 3